To go big or stay focused?

Congratulations to all the registry participants and winners. Now that the 2015 awards have been decided we can take a peek at the judges' selections, and with 90,000 registry sets out there, I know I will be viewing most of these for the first time.

Like many of you, I spent a good portion of 2015 creating, organizing and polishing my sets. I've become a big fan of custom sets and I added four last year. I especially like the control we have over the size of our sets and I've kept mine pretty small and focused. The gallery page, where you can see fifteen coins (30 individual photos) at once including the owner's annotations, is my favorite way to view a set. But I will admit that I'm not likely to go more than two pages deep. Personal preferences aside, I wonder if keeping my sets so small was the best approach.

One of the custom sets I created last year is the pillar dollar companion to my 8 reales busts of Charles III. Although they are chronologically adjacent, the pillar dollars are more desirable to collectors and I (and my wallet) opted for a lower average grade. But now I wonder if I should have combined them together. After all, many of the top custom sets feature considerably more coins than I am contemplating.

I would like your opinion -- should I keep my Columnarios de Carlos separate or roll them into the Amazing 8s?

Here's one of those pillar dollars from the Viceroyalty of Peru, Lima mint and a link to the set.

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetGallery.aspx?s=19381

~jack

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